linux-kernel - Re: Compilation problem with drivers/staging/zsmalloc when !SMP on ARM

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Date:	Fri, 18 Jan 2013 13:45:27 -0800
From:	Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@...uxfoundation.org>
To:	Russell King - ARM Linux <linux@....linux.org.uk>
Cc:	Matt Sealey <matt@...esi-usa.com>,
	Linux ARM Kernel ML <linux-arm-kernel@...ts.infradead.org>,
	devel@...verdev.osuosl.org, LKML <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
	Konrad Rzeszutek Wilk <konrad.wilk@...cle.com>,
	Minchan Kim <minchan@...nel.org>,
	Nitin Gupta <ngupta@...are.org>,
	Seth Jennings <sjenning@...ux.vnet.ibm.com>
Subject: Re: Compilation problem with drivers/staging/zsmalloc when !SMP on
 ARM

On Fri, Jan 18, 2013 at 09:08:59PM +0000, Russell King - ARM Linux wrote:
> On Fri, Jan 18, 2013 at 02:24:15PM -0600, Matt Sealey wrote:
> > Hello all,
> > 
> > I wonder if anyone can shed some light on this linking problem I have
> > right now. If I configure my kernel without SMP support (it is a very
> > lean config for i.MX51 with device tree support only) I hit this error
> > on linking:
> 
> Yes, I looked at this, and I've decided that I will _not_ fix this export,
> neither will I accept a patch to add an export.
> 
> As far as I can see, this code is buggy in a SMP environment.  There's
> apparantly no guarantee that:
> 
> 1. the mapping will be created on a particular CPU.
> 2. the mapping will then be used only on this specific CPU.
> 3. no guarantee that another CPU won't speculatively prefetch from this
>    region.
> 4. when the mapping is torn down, no guarantee that it's the same CPU that
>    used the happing.
> 
> So, the use of the local TLB flush leaves all the other CPUs potentially
> containing TLB entries for this mapping.
> 
> Finally, there is no TODO file for this driver, which I believe is a
> requirement for anything to be in stable.  So as far as I can see, it
> should be deleted or a TODO file added.  I'm not sure why Greg decided
> to add it without a TODO file.

I don't know, I'm cursing the day I took the whole zsmalloc, zcache,
zram mess that we have in the staging tree now.  People are working to
get them out of staging, which is good, but the churn involved is
driving me crazy.

I wouldn't worry about it, anyone who uses this code is really on their
own.  Matt, best of luck.

greg k-h
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